This task is now largely complete. The ‘Swarm Day’ held recently, when extra hands were brought in to assist the normal Thursday working party, was particularly effective and now all photographs are in one place, ready for further work. The rest of the collection has been gone through and sub-sorted and the inevitable collection of non-Archive materials filtered out and disposed of. A team made a final pass through the rejected material to ensure nothing of any value had been swept up in the process.

covered when not in use (Action PB)

Complete.

High level Inventory created (Action PB, DM, CG et al)

Ongoing work. AL is progressing with cataloguing the Handbooks and Parts List. Other areas can now be looked at after the completion of the reorganisation.

Approach those with known collections of Handbooks (Action PB, CG)

PB has been in communication with a well known Motoring Books dealer about access to his collection and will be following this up when they meet at Wollaton Park Autokarna. CG is in discussions with an Austin 7 owner with an extensive private collection regarding access

In progress. AL has suffered a terminal failure of his PC which has delayed this.

Create a specification for digital files (Action HB)

Not yet done. HB was hoping that a Digital Archivist appointment might help this.

Association Dropbox account to be increased to 1Tb (Action WebMaster)

Complete

User Specification for Archive pages (Action HB, RD)

Draft produced. Further work is ongoing and should be complete for early June. The Webmaster is involved in the discussions and will base his development of the Archive pages on this spec. It will be circulated to the wider Project Team for comment before final sign off.

Open Day Draft Plan (Action PB)

PB is working on this. It will be documented to a detailed level and a draft circulated to the Project Team by June 15th. Sign off for the completed plan will be the end of June. See item 7

Copyright research (Action CG)

Proving more complex than at first hoped. Advice will be sought from external sources

Trophy storage and Insurance (Action CG)

Complete, but the initial period of storage arranged will soon end. CG to negotiate an extension of the arrangements.

Job Description for Digital Archivist (Action HB)

Complete

Geoff Roe guidance for Bert Hadley collection (Action CG)

Complete. Geoff Roe attended the ‘Swarm Day’ and focussed on the Bert Hadley Collection. Our heartfelt thanks go to Geoff for his efforts.

All photographs sorted and counted (Action all)

Now the work on the Swarm Day sees all the photos in one place, work can start on this.

Digital Archivist advertising (Action HB)

Complete

Photo Collection sorting

Now the photos are sorted into one place, work on this topic can start in earnest. It is recognised that this will be a significant part of the Archive Project. Initially photos will be sorted into year order for further work. The point was made strongly that as the photos begin to be sorted some way of identifying them from a catalogue point of view was required. Ie, once a photo has had initial identification, we must be able to immediately find it again. This might be a catalogue identifier being written on the back of the photo in soft pencil or a small sticker being applied. PB to refer back to our Archive course notes in Winchester to decide on best approach. It was also recognised that many other ‘keyword’ attributes will be required for each photo as well as date (eg, location, driver, model, etc, etc) *Any* work should be captured in Excel so as to be able to add this to the formal Catalogue being created. First piece of information required is how many photos do we have?

This is now the next prioritised strand of work in the Project. The Thursday working party will be welcoming local Austin 7 owner Alan Garaghty, printer of the last 2 chassis registers to its ranks who has offered to help with this task.

Appointment of a Digital Archivist

HB had received one approach from a highly qualified candidate but was unable to make any progress after the person declined to take his application any further. This is a matter of some concern, the post is considered crucial to the success of the Project in the longer term. CG will repeat the advert in the July edition of the Pre-War A7 Club Magazine. HB will contact the person he had the approach from suggesting that if he has more time in the future, his contribution would still be welcome.

Open Day

PB outlined his plans for the day. These are shaping up well. PB was asked to document his ideas at a detailed level and circulate them for comment from the Project Team by June 15th. The final plans to be signed off by the Project Team by the end of June.

Specifically, photos will be taken on the day and a write up for the Grey Mag be commissioned.

Budget

The development of the Archive pages on the Association Web site is going to be undertaken by Chris Charles, Association Web Master. As this is not an inconsiderable piece of work and if done commercially, would likely cost in the region of £3000, the Project has deemed it reasonable that Chris should be awarded an honorarium of £1000. This will be put to the Association Meeting on July 10th for sanction. This will be in addition to the monies for the Project from Association funds already granted. HB will sanction payment on completion of the work.

Digitisation

HB and RD continue to be in contact with Hampshire County Council. It is clear that they have now started in earnest on the Handbooks and Parts lists as there has been a recent exchange of emails regarding technical aspects of the images from this part of the work.

RD will approach HCC to ensure that the work will be complete by mid July (so we can get the original materials back in time for the Open day). We will remind them that we will arrange for their collection by a local Austin 7 owner with car (along with Project Team Members).

RD will also supply a list of show brochures that PB has supplied to get a quote for our next tranche of digitisation.

Publicity

Continues to be a priority issue. Any opportunity to advertise the content of the Archives and the work of the Project must be taken. A recent exchange on Austin 7 Friends forum was a perfect example when information held in the archive went some way to answering a question. PB was encouraged to play a greater part in the forum offering information from the Archive where possible.

Specific topics mentioned were the Open Day, to ensure the best possible turn out and for HB to follow up on a Cambs A7 Member with paint charts from 1936.

AOB

Nothing raised

Date of next meeting

Sunday July 10th after the Association Meeting at the Dun Cow, Dunchurch.

Task List for next Meeting

Approach those with known collections of Handbooks (Action PB, CG)

Create Spreadsheet catalogue for all Handbooks and Parts Lists *NB* required to be complete soonest (by end June at the latest) for Webmaster’s development of Archive pages (Action AL)